Water Board Director Mike Taylor who has been accused of stacking West Valley Water with all of his dirty friends from Baldwin Park. Since the last election where Clifford Young gained near full control of all board members there has been a push to get rid of people who refuse to get in line with an out of control and abusive Board of Directors.

Prior to hiring the political friends of Board Member Mike Taylor Board Member Clifford Young hired his own friends from Cal State San Bernardino. So when we found out that more Baldwin Park Council Members & Former Cal State San Bernardino employees.

A Press Release that Board Member Greg Young posted under the guise of “transparency” is full of admissions of continued favoritism and abuse of normal hiring practices.

“West Valley Water District (WVWD), after a thorough public search that resulted in 25 applicants and multiple interviews, is pleased to announce the appointments of an Assistant General Manager and Chief Financial Officer, who were approved by the Board of Directors on March 29.”

West Valley Water may have taken applications for these positions but sources close to the main office know what it takes to get a job at West Valley and it isn’t fair and open to everyone. The path to obtaining a job is a long list of who you know, can you do as your told without question and do I owe you a favor. What people should know is that in its self is not enough to keep you employed you must go along with the will of Clifford Young no matter what.

“Ricardo Pacheco was named WVWD’s Assistant General Manager. He will oversee external affairs and begins work at the District in the first week of April.”

“In a whistleblower lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week, plaintiff David Salcedo alleges he was subject to harassment and retaliation during his brief tenure as chief. He said he was eventually fired when he refused to do favors for Councilman Ricardo Pacheco and complained about the requests.” LA Times Sept 2017

“Salcedo says he refused a request from Councilman Pacheco in March to fix a ticket. According to the suit, the councilman was incensed and eventually hung up on the chief while discussing the issue on the telephone. The lawsuit also claims Pacheco requested other favors, such as towing a truck that was legally parked, posting no-parking signs in violation of city laws and sending a patrol car to investigate a vacant house on the elected official’s street.” LA Times Sept 2017

Richard Pacheco was named Assistant Manager for West Valley Water the same person you see referenced above supporting Police Cheif/West Valley Water Board Member Mike Taylor’s never before seen no fire contract. This isn’t the 1st person Mike Taylor has brought from Baldwin Park he also brought Baldwin Park City Attorney Robert Tafoya who wrote Mike Taylor’s bullet proof employment contract with the city of Baldwin Park.

Clifford Young has Mike Taylor run – Mike Taylor wins and gives Clifford access to his vote.

Looks like the path to employment at West Valley Water is like entering a crime family. It is less about what you can do for the Water District and more about what you can do for the Board of Directors.

West Valley Water District (WVWD), after a thorough public search that resulted in 25 applicants and multiple interviews, is pleased to announce the appointments of an Assistant General Manager and Chief Financial Officer, who were approved by the Board of Directors on March 29.

Ricardo Pacheco, who works as a project manager for Caltrans and ITT Corp., was named WVWD’s Assistant General Manager. He will oversee external affairs and begins work at the District in the first week of April.

Pacheco holds an engineering degree from California State University, Los Angeles. He has worked as Director of Public Works for the city of South Gate, Calif., an associate engineer for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and a project manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Pacheco is in his fifth term as a councilman in Baldwin Park, where he has been instrumental in drawing redevelopment to the city.

Naisha Davis was appointed as the District’s Chief Financial Officer. She is a Certified Public Accountant, holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from California State University, San Bernardino, and is a graduate of Eisenhower High School in Rialto.

For the last nine years, Davis has served as the accounting manager for Lifestream Blood Bank, where she oversaw an $80 million budget and all financial operations, including annual budget preparation, forecasting and cost control. She previously worked as the accounting and human resources manager at Caseworx Inc. in Redlands, Calif.

“Both of our new managers bring with them a depth of experience in their respective fields that will be a valuable asset to West Valley Water District,” General Manager Robert Christman said. “With Ricardo Pacheco’s knowledge of engineering and local government and Naisha Davis’ work in the non-profit sector, they round out a talented team that will contribute to the continued success of the District.”

The appointees were selected from field of applicants after the job openings were posted and advertised. The successful candidates were interviewed and vetted by a Board committee to ensure their competence and ability to support WVWD’s mission and values.

Measure M is a tax increase.The 8% Rialto Utility Users Tax (UUT) was given to the city council and all they did is abuse the tax and waste time and money. Now to remove any responsibility to the voters they are giving themselves a permanent TAX increase FOREVER!!!!!!!

This levy on utility bills provides roughly $14 million in revenue per year. These funds go into the General Fund and are abused by the city. The mayor and council play games with your taxes and name buildings and parks after their political allies. The council needs this money to cover the MILLIONS in Lawsuits that they have single handily brought on Rialto Tax Payers.

To scare you into voting for this measure the city is using the old scare tactic of taking away police and fire services. Councilman Ed Scott has been Quoted saying that rialto police the bottom of the barrel.

The police never respond to complaints and are causing more problems then they solve. Rialto Police are famous for the drive by they do when they respond to a call. This consists of cruising by the location at 45 MPH. Rialto Fire spends more time outside the city under a mutual aide agreement than they do inside the city. Also they are preparing to stack a Fire Tax on top of this one next year. ALL WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT!

Reducing the Public Works Department by 11 positions, will make little change since the city looks horrid as it is so nothing will change.

Had it not been for dedicated people like us the Council was HELL bent on charging this tax on all seniors!

Rialto Fire charges annual fees to pick you up in an emergency leading to more people avoiding calling for help and risking further injury by waiting or self transport.

Rialto charges you a TRASH TAX because BURRTEC trucks are too heavy for Rialto streets but we can’t charge BURRTEC for it because they are political allies of Mayor Robertson.

$100,000 a year is paid so that our elected leaders can travel all over the country on your DIME.

Even if this measure passes Rialto will still be bankrupt in 4 years. The only difference is you will be stuck with a Utility Users Tax that NEVER ENDS!!!!!

The people signed onto this TAX are doing so to keep the flow of your tax money into their pockets. A small handful have been bullied into signing on to this tax. Multiple people have reached out saying that the Mayor said get on board or else.

Let me first off say that if you are a customer of West Valley Water you have to be concerned with your water provider being able to provide you with clean drinking water. Why would I say this? The entire time Clifford Young has been a Director of West Valley Water he has used West Valley funds to investigate and sue people who refuse to fall in line with his rule. Here is a short and not complete list of people he has spent rate payers money eithier investigating or suing since 2014:

Butch Ariza – Former West Valley Water GM and Candidate for the board Clifford used rate payer money to investigate if Mr. Ariza was legally allowed to run for the elected seat. Normally this is left to the Registrar of Voters but since Mr. Young hated Mr. Ariza he took matters into his own hands.

Board Member Alan Dyer – Mr. Dyer is another person that refused to go along with Clifford Young and his antics so he too was investigated with rate payer money on the validity of his residence. Now you may say this was more appropriate but no. When local Rialto City Council member Deborah Robertson investigated the validity of her fellow Council member Ed Palmer’s residence she sued him personally no taxpayer money was used.

Redwing and Sherill – Since this company was not connected to Mr. Young and his closest campaign contributors money and time was wasted looking over a long series of paid and unpaid bills.

The entire 2017 Executive Board – Given no public explanation even though the board members have publicly asked for one Dr. Clifford Young,Sr. has refused to justify yet another misuse of public funds as he descends onto another personal witch hunt.

The main constant here is that all of these Investigations or Suits have amounted to NOTHING!!!! Dr. Clifford Young,Sr. has not produced one shred of public evidence that these actions were warranted and no actions have come from the misuse of public funds. Normally when money is spent from the public funds there is some report able action that comes along even if it is a net loss something is brought forward. Not in the world of Mr. Young he uses the public’s funds at his own desire with no public accountability.

Here are a few more times where Mr. Young has repeatably taken liberties with the public’s funds:

Sources report that Mr. Young has all of his fellow directors book hotel stay’s and conference registrations with his personal credit card so that he can stack up extra cash back bonus points. Then he and the other directors are reimbursed from the Water District leaving Mr. Young with a windfall of cash back points. You may say who cares they don’t go to that many things right? WRONG they pad their pockets by attending meaningless meetings and functions so that they can earn more money. They are paid a fixed amount per event they attend on behalf of the Water District no matter how long they stay. Instead of using a district credit card to pay for expenses, Young uses his personal credit card for such expenses so he could earn credit rewards and Marriott points. It led to former district CFO Suzanne Cook being fired after bringing the matter to Young’s attention. Cook sued the district in July, and the case is still pending, court records show. (Sun)

Clifford Young is now on his fourth General Manager and Third Legal Counsel Firm in the four years since he has been a Director with West Valley Water. Let me tell you these contracts are not cheap to begin with and the clauses for removing them before their contract is up isn’t cheap either.

Since Mr. Young has been on the board he has not only raised Directors ability to make more money but has further limited the communities ability to interact with the Water Board click here to read more.

Lawsuits Clifford Young and West Valley Water currently find themselves up against the future liability of workplace harassment lawsuits as spelled out by Hardy Brown Senior (click here)

Six figure no-bid contracts are awarded to friends of the board.

Young routinely forced staff to hire colleagues from his former job at CSUSB, including paying one a salary of $260,000 a year with no job description.

Young regularly expensed alcohol and charged it to the agency & regularly expensed meals for his wife and charged the agency against policy. (click here)

What we found alarming when we first began reporting on West Valley Water and the mess that resides in the Elected body was the strong desire to control the release of information about what is going on there. Board Director Greg Young once tried to have Joise Gonzales the local Board Supervisor to silence us (see here) add to that the constant threats by Clifford Young to Sue Us for slander (never happened) there is a strong move to silence the media going on here and now we see why.

For the longest time Clifford Young was able to keep under the radar of bigger media sources (even though we tried hard to nudge them into looking into West Valley’s actions). Well with the recent elections where Clifford Young was able to fully secure 4 out of 5 board seats on the West Valley Board and has his eye on getting Mr. Olinger out of the Board in the coming election to secure complete control he forgot that his friend and now board director Mike Taylor has already secured a steady stream of media attention with his actions in Baldwin Park. Mr Young also lost sight of Mr Taylors bad deeds seeping into Rialto:

When Baldwin Park rehired Michael Taylor as its police chief, the city included a provision in his contract that makes him exceedingly difficult to fire. Taylor can only be terminated from his $234,000-a-year job, according to the agreement, if he commits a felony. Baldwin Park leaders also prohibited themselves from giving Taylor annual performance evaluations. The agreement allows the council to place Taylor on administrative leave — but with pay. The contract term is only for one year. But if the council doesn’t renew it, Taylor gets a severance package worth three months’ salary.

Taylor was recently elected board member at West Valley Water District in Rialto, about 39 miles from Baldwin Park, soon after returning as police chief. One of Taylor’s first actions as a new director on Dec. 7 was to vote for a new attorney to serve the district: Robert Tafoya, the Baldwin Park city attorney who weeks earlier presented the chief’s employment contract to that city’s council for approval.

Taylor has taken money from a drug operation in Baldwin Park where he is the police chief to fund his campaign for West Valley Water Board. Taylor who received help from local republican and tea party groups on his campaign are the same groups who claim to be against drug legalization in California.

Taylor is also accused of moving money around as a way to cover the origins of said money. In another story by the legal lens businesses that are known for using campaign contributions as a way to secure favorable contrasts within the city of Baldwin Park are now spending money here in the West Valley Water Races.

A person of interest in the character assassination of Kareem Gongora when Kareem was running for special election for Fontana Unified School Board is the listed Treasurer for Mike Taylor. The same campaign that shifted money around and took drug money to win a campaign.

Board President Clifford Young has misappropriated public funds and routinely engages in unfair hiring practices, with no regard to staff concerns and district policies and procedures. (Sun)

Young, according to a memo, demanded the district hire people that he worked with at Cal State San Bernardino or had personal affiliations with. (Sun)

Young awarded no-bid contracts to friends, including political lobbyist William Lowery and public relations expert Patrick O’Reilly. Additionally, Young received more than $42,000 in reimbursement for travel, meals and incidentals and more than $43,000 in director fees. He does not provide line item receipts to “ensure that the district is not paying for prohibited expenses such as alcohol,” (Sun)

So Rialto you have one question to ask yourselves. Why do we keep accepting this type of behavior and failed leadership? Don’t the people of West Valley Water deserve better? Where is the DA’s of Riverside, San Bernardino and LA Counties at? Are they going to allow failed leadership to break the rules with ZERO accountability?

Welcome to our individual interviews with Candidates running for local elections. All candidates were given the same questions and allowed the freedom to answer as they see fit. We did not alter any of the responses so you are hearing things directly from them.

In this interview we are introducing you to Linda Gonzalez. Mrs. Gonzalez is a person who has spent a long time in the Rialto area. Mrs. Gonzalez is also one of the elected incumbents seeking re-election to the West Valley Water board.

1) Tell us about yourself where did you grow up, go to school and work before?

I was born in Los Angeles. In 1985 I was married and we decided to buy our first house in the City of Fontana in 1986.

I have attended local community colleges in the area and raise our four children who are young adults now. I currently work at our family owned business since March 3, 1988 in Fontana California. In 1990 we relocated to Bloomington California and decided that is where we raise our four children, all our children attended grade school through Bloomington high school and graduated and continued on to colleges and universities.

2) How does your past make you a good candidate for West Valley Water Board?

My whole life I have been a community advocate in our local areas I care about our cities and towns.

I have served in the following boards or Business organizations.

A. Bloomington municipal advisory Council (MAC) served 13 years.(1998-2011). Four years as chairwoman.

b. Fontana Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors served six years. (2000-2006).

C. Bloomington woman’s club served as President four years.

(2010-2014).

D. Colton unified school district (measure G) committee served as the vice chair for six years.

E. Volunteered in the Girl Scouts of America many years.Bloomington Little League volunteered as a team mom.

F. I currently serve as vice president on West Valley Water District board from December 2013 -to present.

I understand what it is to have a well fiscal year budget balance. I have the knowledge on how to implement ideas on the table to help our general manager and the water district team to succeed in securing future funds for the water district and on behalf of our ratepayers.

3) Some of you are incumbents what have you learned since being elected or appointed that you didn’t know until you sat in the elected seat?

I am currently the vice President of our West Valley Water District.

I currently served on

A. Executive committee.

B. Human resource committee.

c. External Affairs committee.

I have Learned that water is more difficult than what it seems. Water has to be treated and it has to be transferred from point A to point B meaning from our wells and reservoirs to your homes and business.The state regulates water very highly.

4) How important is transparency to you?

Transparency is very important to me. From always respecting our water district ratepayers to our internal departments. We should always have open communication. There should always have an open door policy at this water district.

5) Do you believe that partisan politics have a place within a water board seat?

I am here to represent all people across the board all walks of life.

6) What is your impression of the communities freedom of speech?

Our First Amendment gives us rights to freedom of speech.

7) What are your thoughts on budget surpluses? Should they be a certain percentage of the overall budget or are they even important?

The district should have a budget surplus for in case of a natural disaster or to slowly address aging infrastructure,1/3 of the budget surplus is for restricted funds for our bonds.

To find out more about Linda Gonzalez go to https://www.facebook.com/2013lindagonzalez2017/

Welcome to our individual interviews with Candidates running for local elections. All candidates were given the same questions and allowed the freedom to answer as they see fit. We did not alter any of the responses so you are hearing things directly from them.

In this interview we are introducing you to Robert Bourland. Mr. Bourland is a person we didn’t know a lot about and he was appointed to the West Valley Water Board by the Board of Supervisors to fill the appointed spot that Rafael Trujillo vacated after he was elected to city council. Mr. Bourland was the successful candidate and appointed to this position by the San Bernardino County Supervisors after an exhaustive search and interview process over a number of other potential candidates.

There are a couple of candidates that have an extensive background in providing utility services to this region and Robert Bourland is one of those candidates, enjoy.

First, I’d like to express my appreciation for bringing out the real issues the voters should be looking at and not the partisan political statements, the slander that’s been so freely flowing and the made-up promises that cannot be delivered unless appropriate due-diligence is done, contrary to some of the political propaganda being propagated.

1) Tell us about yourself where did you grow up, go to school and work before?

I have lived in Rialto since 1964. I went to Morgan elementary, Frisbie Junior High, Eisenhower High, San Bernardino Valley College and California State San Bernardino. While attending college I worked full-time at Stater Brothers grocery stores. After obtaining my Bachelor’s degree I started my career at Southern California Edison as a meter reader, ultimately retiring as an Executive. Along with serving on the WVWD board, I currently serve on the Board of Directors at Anand-PAG LLC.

For a more detailed review of my extensive work experience please see my LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/robertbourland

2) How does your past make you a good candidate for West Valley Water Board?

I have over 35 years of experience in the utility industry, including water, gas and electric. Prior to my retirement at SCE, I was responsible for the entire portfolio of applications at the company including Customer Service, Transmission & Distribution, Generation, Conservation, Technology etc. This is exactly the same work that West Valley Water District does, except that SCE was on a much larger scale. I KNOW this business, how to run it, fix it, make it more efficient which ultimately leads to safer, more reliable and the most affordable water possible.

At SCE I ran an organization of several hundred people and was responsible for budgets of well over $200. Million (about 10 times what the WVWD budget is)

I currently serve on the Board of Directors of Anand-PAG LLC, a mid-size technology company

I have previously served as Board President of the El Rancho Verde MAC committee

I have previously served on the Visitors Board of Claremont College

3) Some of you are incumbents what have you learned since being elected or appointed that you didn’t know until you sat in the elected seat?

Overseeing a water district is very similar to overseeing any other utility which I have spent my last 35+ years doing very successfully. I’ve been disappointed to learn that in dealing with elected officials and “wannabe” elected officials, they are willing to say things to garner votes, instead of doing what’s right for the district, employees and ultimately the rate payers.

My commitment is to always focus on the issues at-hand and deal with them keeping in mind the best interests of our constituents, employees and the water district. I will not be influenced by political inclinations or other outside influences.

4) How important is transparency to you?

Transparency in an organization builds trust amongst employees and our ratepayers. It is a critical success factor for the newly elected board to rebuild that trust that has eroded over the past several years. I will accept nothing less than full transparency as we work towards the success of our District.

5) Do you believe that partisan politics have a place within a water board seat?

Absolutely not! Decisions made by the WVWD board should be based entirely on the facts of the matter at hand to ensure safe, reliable and affordable water to our ratepayers. As opposed to the stated view of some of the candidates (per their campaign literature), I do not believe partisan politics should have any influence, at all, on the policies adopted by this board.

In regards to partisanship on the board, I think it’s important to note that I’m supported by both Josie Gonzales (D) and Janice Rutherford (R).

6) What is your impression of the communities freedom of speech?

Freedom of speech is everyone’s lawful right in our wonderful country and I fully support that. I also believe that we should self-impose some moral and ethical boundaries upon ourselves out of respect for one another and our diverse beliefs. Although to-date none of this has been targeted against me, I’m abhorred at some of the campaign literature mailed during this election. Candidates should focus on what they stand for and their value proposition, not putting out half-truths and disparaging remarks about others.

7) What are your thoughts on budget surpluses? Should they be a certain percentage of the overall budget or are they even important?

As a government entity, WVWD is a not-for-profit organization. The budgeting process is intended to anticipate all costs needed for normal operations as well as unexpected events. Because WVWD is a government agency, there is no “budget surplus” built into the budget. The budget will be “even” where the incoming revenue is equal to the expected expenditures for the upcoming year.

What some people inaccurately perceive to be a “surplus” are in fact essential items needed for the effective operations of the water district. Examples are:

o Capital improvements for projects to replace the miles of pipelines that are aged and are in dire need of replacement before catastrophic failure

o Capital improvement projects to expand and insure our water services are not interrupted

My commitment is to insure that the costs to obtain our water, to purify our water, to deliver our water to our constituents will be the lowest possible, which will lead to the lowest possible rates to our customers.

List any and all contact info people can use to get a hold of you or learn more. Also please include a photo we can use for your article. If you have any video links you would like included please Include those as well.

Welcome to our individual interviews with Candidates running for local elections. All candidates were given the same questions and allowed the freedom to answer as they see fit. We did not alter any of the responses so you are hearing things directly from them.

In this interview we are introducing you to Butch Araiza. Mr. Araiza is a person who has basically lived his entire life in the Rialto area given back in so many ways and has worked his entire life at West Valley Water. There are a couple of candidates that have an extensive background in providing utility services to this region and Butch Araiza is one of those candidates, enjoy.

1) Tell us about yourself where did you grow up, go to school and work before?

I was born and raised in Rialto. I was in one of the first classes to go through Boyd Elementary, and then I went on to Rialto Middle School and Eisenhower High. I’ve taken courses at Valley College and Cal State San Bernardino, and while those were important in helping me learn the science behind water distribution, my real education came on the job. I started at West Valley Water District when I was 19 years old, thinking it would be a good summer job–I went on to work there for 52 years. I started out in irrigation, working to help get water to the citrus groves that used to cover the area, and I slowly worked my way up through just about every department in the district until I reached the level of Superintendent. As Superintendent I was responsible for all field operations for several years. After that I become Assistant General Manager for 10 years before becoming the General Manager. I served as General Manager for 20 years.

2) How does your past make you a good candidate for West Valley Water Board?

I have been involved in water for almost my entire life. I’ve served in the management of the District for over 35 years. I know water. And I also know this community because I’ve been involved in it my entire life too. I’ve been a member of Rialto Rotary for over 20 years, and have served as president of the club several times. I’ve been one of the organizers of the RialtoRun WhatchaBrung car show since it began. I was a member of the Rialto Planning Commissionfor 8 years, and served as Chairman for several of those. I spent over 20 years on the board of the Friends of the Rialto Police K-9s. And finally, I was a member of the Oversight Committees for the last two school bond measures for Rialto Unified School District. Almost all of that work was as a volunteer, because I care about this community.

3) Some of you are incumbents what have you learned since being elected or appointed that you didn’t know until you sat in the elected seat?

I am not an incumbent, but I have been involved with the water board for the last 20 years. The thing that has most surprised me about recent elections is the amount of partisanship that has become a part of it. In the past we’ve had people with different viewpoints on the water board, and there have been disagreements over policy, but I never once questioned that board members were making decisions based on the well being of the district. In the past four years that has changed. Certain board members have become far too involved in the hiring and firing practices of the district, and they have taken a direct hand in managing the district by directly overruling the day-to-day decisions of district management (the people who have experience in these issues, and who are paid to make those decisions). Additionally, I have seen board members do things like initiate baseless investigations just so that they could send out negative campaign literature claiming that other candidates are “under investigation.” And, of course, those investigations are dropped as soon as the campaign is over. I would encourage voters to research these issues carefully before believing anything they receive in the mail. And I hope, that if I am elected, I can help restore an ethical water board (I know that Linda Gonzalez and Robert Bourland also share this hope which is why I have endorsed them for the other open seats).

4) How important is transparency to you?

I believe transparency is extremely important to good governance. Many of the changes that have been made to the Board of Directors’ rules and procedures since I left management are troubling to me because I feel that they decrease transparency. I support an ethics code for the board and a return to the rules of order that existed prior to last four years.

5) Do you believe that partisan politics have a place within a water board seat?

No. A board seat is a non-partisan position meant to oversee the management of the Water District. The board is there to set overall policy for the district, approve budgets, and to make sure that the district manager is doing his or her job. Those are not partisan issues.

6) What is your impression of the communitiesfreedom of speech?

I believe that freedom of speech is the cornerstone of our democracy. Without a free discussion of the issues no consensus or compromise could be reached, and only those with the right “opinion” would be allowed to participate–a system like that is not sustainable and it’s not good for the people. On my Facebook page you can find my direct cell phone number. I put that there because I want the people in this community to be able to speak to me directly; to voice their concerns, criticisms, and even just to talk about the district. I welcome it all. Speech is very important to me.

7) What are your thoughts on budget surpluses? Should they be a certain percentage of the overall budget or are they even important?

The district should not have extreme budget surpluses. Of course, in any given period of time there will be times when the district is able to get good deals or somehow decrease costs resulting in a short term budget surplus, and that’s good–it’s a sign of good management. But sustained budget surpluses are a sign that rates can be decreased. Now that is not to say that the district should not have savings. If a large natural disaster struck our community, without savings the district would have no efficient way to rebuild any infrastructure that is damaged and it would be difficult to restore service to the community without taking out expensive loans. Everyone needs a rainy day fund and the district is no different. That said, the district currently appears to be in a good financial situation and I feel confident in guaranteeing that I will not vote for any rate increases unless there is some catastrophic change in that.

It seems as though nothing has changed when it comes to providing clean drinking water to 11 cities in 2 counties.

You may remember a few years ago when we covered corruption and misuse of funds on the West Valley Water District Board of Directors. Then Councilman Shawn O’Connell a resident of the water district called out blatant areas where funds were being misused, board members were being bullies and political lines were being drawn in the sand. It became so bad that groups that previously supported Councilman O’Connell threatened to pull their support of him if he didn’t stop his questions of board member Clifford Young.

Now Clifford Young is running for re-election and he is looking to buy residents votes, spreading lies about other candidates and turing on those who once supported him.

One Candidate and the former General Manager of West Valley Water posted this on his social media page earlier this week:

I’d like to respond to some of the attacks that have come out recently against Linda Gonzalez and myself. They are lies, plain and simple.

I’m proud of my 35 years of management of the district. During my time as manager we built two water treatment plants. We kept the water supply safe, despite the discovery of perchlorate pollution. Rates may have gone up in 2013 but that was because we refused to raise rates at all during the economic recession following 2009, and despite the rate increases our district’s water rates are lower than both Rialto and Fontana’s water rates. If the district had been mismanaged for 35 years, we wouldn’t be able to say any of that.

Regarding the claims made about Linda Gonzalez, I’ll just say this. I can provide anyone with records of Freedom of Information Act requests made to the district which show that in the last three years Linda Gonzalez has been paid $34,000 for her work on the board. In that same time Clifford Young was paid $97,000 for carrying out the same job. He did this by going to as many “business” lunches and trips as possible and by gaming the system to get extra perks.

So who is really trying to take all the money they can from the district? Butch Arizia.

Mr. Arizia is right he did an excellent job as the General Manager for West Valley Water. Not only did the Water District not steal millions from rate payers like Rialto Water did to clean up Perchlorate from the ground water. Rialto Water charged the residents Millions to clean up the water then spent over 50 million (Tax Money)on attorneys to sue the people responsible then settled for pennies on the dollar. Mr. Arizia also kept West Vally water from making a monumental mistake that would have done extreme damage to West Valley Water. When the Rialto City Council was forced to remove American Water as the preferred company to handle the selling off of a utility the council went to West Valley and more importantly Butch Arizia to see if West Valley wanted to step in. Butch Arizia took one look at the contract and knew it was a poorly put together plan that made delivering on the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) impossible. He was right because Rialto Water customers still have water that is hard to drink, skyrocketing water rates and none of the Capital Projects completed and many are way behind schedule over 5 years later.

Another former General Manager from West Valley Water who worked under the regime of Clifford Young left and when we bumped into him he was beyond happy to be out of West Valley Water and out from under certain people’s thumbs.

One of our favorite stories we wrote on Clifford Young was when new board members were sworn in and Clifford Young took this opportunity to change the rules of open meetings making it harder for the public to address their elected officials. Another one we enjoyed was when Clifford Young ripped into water employees.

Some people are claiming that Clifford Young is buying votes with his latest campaign ad (see below).

If purchasing your vote isn’t bad remember Clifford Young is the person most responsible for giving support to Rafael Trujillio the Councilman from Rialto that worked behind the scenes to turn Rialto into a sanctuary city putting millions of dollars in Federal grants in jeopardy.

CITY OF BLOOMINGTON, CITY OF COLTON, CITY OF FONTANA, CITY OF GRAND TERRACE, CITY OF HIGHGROVE, CITY OF JURUPA VALLEY, CITY OF MUSCOY, CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CITY OF RIALTO, CITY OF RIVERSIDE & CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO

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